Blank Slate
by FranceGamble-too
Summary: He woke up with no memories and a blank slate. Not knowing anything he starts over again without any preconceptions to what he likes or even knows. Will he really be okay going through life in the foster care system and not knowing who he is? Why is no one missing him?
1. Chapter 1

Blank Slate

France Gamble

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter One

"Duo!" Someone called out from the mass of people celebrating. He turned his head rapidly around, his braid flinging to his left shoulder, as he searched for the familiar face that went with that familiar voice. There was a bright blond head bobbing in the crowd. He waved his hand high to signal to his friend where he was. Suddenly baby blue eyes were infront of his violet tinted pair before he was practically crushed in an excited hug.

"It's over!" the slightly smaller boy yelled over the throng.

"Quatre… breathing…" he choked out, and then laughed as the blond gasped and let go, "I think you broke three ribs!"

"Won't stop you from talking, would it?" a Chinese youth asked as he stopped next to the pair. He smirked at the chestnut haired boy to show he was joking.

"Nothing could stop him from talking," a tall European teen answered matter-of-factly. A Japanese boy stood next to him, "We could rip his tongue out."

Duo grabbed his tongue with his right hand and tried to talk back. Quatre tilted his head slightly, "What?"

Duo let go of his red appendage, laughed out, "Wuffie is so mean. Trowa, you're right. See Heer? I can still make noise!" He started laughing hysterically as the Chinese boy growled out, "It's Wufei." Quatre laughed along and they all blended into the celebration to party for the first time in their lives.

~*~Ma~*~

It was annoying. The sound, that is. It kept going. The rhythm kept on. What was that sound?

Now warmth invaded his senses. That was nice, he knew. He was warm and comfortable for it.

Slowly he opened his eyes. The room he was in was bright! His eyes shut again rapidly. He groaned as they stung.

"Oh-me-God! He's waking up!" he heard a female voice say and then heard hurried footsteps rush away from him.

Footsteps again hit his hearing, this time coming toward him. He slowly opened his eyes again as a man with a black beard and black full head of hair came into his view.

Florescent lights and the sun coming in from a window made the small room very bright. The annoying sound was a heart monitor next to the uncomfortable bed he was flat on his back laying. A sheet and blanket were pulled up to his shoulders making him comfortable warm.

The bearded man hovered over him and shone a bright light into his left eye. Flinching and shying from the light, his hand came up to cover his face. "Sorry, " the man, a doctor, apologized.

"Where am I?" he rasped, quietly, his voice cracking.

"You have been admitted to St. Francis Hospital. You are in the brain trauma ward," the man answered. "I'm your doctor, Dr. Jamie."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm… I'm… " He crinkled his face as he tried to think about what his name could be. He looked at the white coated guy, "I don't know who I am," he whispered.

The doctor once again put the bright light into his eye; this time he let him do it. He switched to the other side. "You had a very bad concussion. Let's see what else you know, okay?" He nodded to the doctor to continue. The doctor sat at the end of his bed and said, "Okay, let's start with the year." He slowly shook his head. "Okay. How about your age…?" Again he shook his head. "Two times four?" the doctor asked. The boy looked at him strange and shocked, and said, "Eight." The doctor nodded. "So, schooling is still there. Do you, maybe, remember anyone else's names? Like friends or family?" The boy looked down at his feet for a minute and then up at the doctor, "No."

The doctor stood up as a nurse entered the room to start tending to him. "Well, that's alright. Does it make you upset to not know?" He shook his head a bit faster this time. "That's good. We're going to let you sit up in bed for a while. The remote to the TV is attached to the bed controls. The nurse here will help you with everything. I want you to stay in bed today, though. We'll start removing things tomorrow that you don't need any more and maybe even start getting real food slowly into you. I want to make sure that you rest today, though." He nodded his understanding as the nurse helped him raise the bed. The doctor left the room after giving the boy a reassuring smile.

~*~Ma~*~

The next day, when he awoke to the sun coming through the window again, he was happy to see the doctor striding into the room to start to unhook him from things. First they changed his IV to one that just would keep him hydrated. Then the doctor did the agonizing task of removing his cathedar. When he could breathe again steadily, he asked the doctor when he would be able to eat real food. His stomach was clenched in emptiness and he really wanted to find out what he liked. He couldn't remember what anything tasted like and he wanted to try everything off of the small menu. The doctor crushed him a bit when he told him that the nurse would be bringing him a bland diet of soups and breads.

He slumped a bit in his bed, his long hair pulled slightly and he reached up to bring it loose. The nurse came to him then with a small brush in her hands. "We should get the tangles out of your hair, okay?" He nodded and smiled at her. The doctor left with his instructions set and the nurse set to helping the boy brush out his long mane of hair. He turned in the bed to sitting on it sideways, his legs dangling off one side and he stared out the window. She knelt on the other side, behind him. It was so long that he sat on it. He didn't know how long it was, since he hadn't tried standing up yet, but he knew it was un-naturally long for a boy. At least, that is what he assumed since the three guys he had seen since waking up and the males on TV all had pretty short hair. She worked at it for a while, being careful to not pull at the long strands and break them. "Should I braid it?" He turned to her slightly with a questioning look on his face. "It was braided when they brought you in. I think with this long of hair it will probably be easier to care for if it was kept braided." He nodded and turned back to being straight and looking out the window.

"Why do I have my hair so long?" he whispered.

She finished tying it off and put the black clothed lined hair tie at the bottom of the long braid, "Maybe you just like it this long. Doesn't there have to be a reason?" she asked him. He shook his head, but he felt that the long hair was cumbersome and so there had to have been a reason he had it so long.

"I just was wondering why I can't remember anything. My hair is long, even by female standards, and so it's got to be hard to manage," he told her. It was the most he had spoken since waking up. She helped him turn to sit back against the bed and smiled at him.

"Are you getting agitated at not knowing?" she asked him. He shook his head. It didn't really bother him that he didn't know things, but he also knew that one of these days it might become something that he'd have to really analyze.

She smiled brighter at him, but it still had a slight tinge of sadness to it he realized, "Do you want me to turn the TV on for you?" He shook his head again. He had watched a lot of TV the day before and found that he couldn't like anything he saw on it. It was all just mindless drooling crap, he had thought. "Well then, what would you like to do?"

He thought about it for a bit and asked shyly, "Read? I think I know how to read. Can I get something to read?" She nodded and left the room. She came back in a few minutes later with a book in her hands.

"One of the nurses has a boy your age and she thought maybe you would like to read some of the books he owns. This is one of them," she handed him a paperback novel with a picture plastered on the front. He didn't know if it was something he would like yet, but it was probably better than drooling all over himself for the rest of the day.

He grabbed the book gently and asked her, "How old am I?"

She was startled for a minute, nodded to herself, and said, "We think you must be 12. You're body seems to have just started puberty, so that's why we calculated as about 12." He nodded and thanked her. She gave him a quick hug and left the room with the promise of bringing him food soon. He opened the book and started to read the first chapter.

~*~Ma~*~

For the next few days he read the book given to him, slept, and ate the bland diet of wheat bread and different broth soups. He thought maybe he should have been bored with only being able to get out of the bed to use the bathroom, the bath he was helped with once a day, and nothing else to do, but he wasn't. The book was interesting and the next book was at the nurses' station for he had been assured when he asked if it was a series. The doctor came in once a day to check on him and see if he remembered anything. By the fifth day awake he did finally remember something. He knew his name started with a D, but that was it. Every time he tried to get his name out, his tongue would start with the sound. The doctor told him that was good and it meant that maybe he would get his memories back. He also warned not to be disappointed if he never did.

He was looking out the window and trying to think about what his past might have been, when the lady he had never seen walked in. She had on high heels and a gray business suit. Her arms were loaded with files and paperwork, which she set on the tray next to his bed. She smiled at him and held out her hand, "Good morning. My name is Alecia Grahm."

He shook her hand, "Hello. I don't know my name." She nodded.

"The doctor told me. I'm sorry to hear that."

He shrugged, "It doesn't bother me, except that everyone keeps introducing themselves to me and I cannot do the same." She gave him a strange look that he could not figure out and then grabbed the file on the top of her stack.

"I've come here because we haven't been able to place where your family is. We have put your picture on the news a few times now and have asked around the best we can to find out who you are and where you come from. We even put it on national news stations, hoping that maybe we just hadn't looked far enough. There has been nothing, though. I'm sorry. No one has reported you missing, either. With how long your hair is, it should have been a red flag to anyone who knew you," she told him sadly. He nodded and looked back out the window. So, he was nameless and no one was missing him. He didn't care that he had no memories, but how come no one wanted him? She continued, "I'm here, though, to tell you that we need to place you with a foster family. At your young age, we cannot guarantee that you'll ever be adopted, but living with a foster family will allow you to go to school and at least be a normal preteen."

He turned his bright violet eyes to the woman, "I am leaving the hospital soon?"

She nodded. "The doctor called me in because, even though you still are getting your strength back, you'll be leaving in a week from here. I know you can't walk far on your own yet, or do strenuous things, but you were in very good shape when you came here." She used her hand to push back a strand of her brown shoulder length hair to behind her ears as she opened the folder she had laid on the bed next to him. "We need to put down a name for you in the system. Do you have any idea what you want to be called?"

He shook his head, "I just know that my name had started with a D."

"Okay, so do you mind if I named you right now, then? We will change it when you remember your name," she said to him.

He waved his hand at her, "Be my guest."

She nodded and said, "Daniel sound good to you?" He nodded. "Okay, any idea what your last name might have been?" He shook his head. She again nodded and said, "Okay, how about Daniel Francis? We'll use the name of the hospital." To him that seemed very fitting to be named after the place that saved his life. She continued on, "How about your birthday?"

He sighed, "I can't remember anything, and so whatever you choose for all of these questions is fine with me."

She sighed as well, "I just want to make sure you're comfortable instead of making all of these choices for you. Let's put your birthday down as the day you woke up, okay? June 1st. You will be going into 7th grade this coming September, but sometime next month a teacher is going to come to your foster parent's house and test you to find out where you are in your learning. We want you to be comfortable. I'm your social worker, so I'll be visiting you every so often as well to make sure that you're adjusting well to where you are staying. We want to make sure that, as you heal and grow, you do so as best you can.

"Your first home is going to be with Mrs. Winter. She is an older lady whose children have all left the nest. She fosters teenagers mostly, but we're going to place her with you because she has her home open currently. You will be the youngest child she has ever had, so I hope you remember that. You will be attending the public middle school in her area. She is within walking distance to it, and I'm sure she'll help you get there the first few times in September. She has no other kids with her currently, so you'll be alone in that sense. That isn't saying she won't get some, though. She is a kind lady. I think you'll like her a lot."

He nodded and again turned to the window.

"I'll leave you to rest, but this week the doctor told me that you will be required to gain your strength again. I am going to go and tell Mrs. Winter that she is going to have you in her home on Saturday, okay?" He nodded and they said good-bye to each other.

'I am 12 and without a home or family. No one knows who I am. How can I have gone 12 years without anyone knowing who I am?' he thought as he watched the tree outside his room sway in a breeze.

~*~ Tsuzuku ~*~


	2. Chapter 2

Blank Slate

France Gamble

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Two

His brain rushed through all of the information he had been gathering from his doctors and nurses for the last week. He would be leaving the hospital today for his new home. The hospital he had been rushed to by a good samaritan who had found him on the side of a highway in a ditch. He had been beat badly and left to die from all the reports that he could gather. His body did have a lot of old scars along it, as well. The doctors said that from what they could tell he had been through a lot of hell in his young life. He had obviously been starved, beat and suffered a lot. Anger rose up inside of him as he thought about it, because he didn't understand why anyone would want to hurt him.

The white haired nurse who cared for him during the dayshift came in to see him brooding on the bed in his oversized borrowed clothes. They had had to discard the clothing he had come in with. She carefully knelt down in front of him and lifted his chin with her fingers to look into his fiery eyes. His violet eyes met her brown ones with rage boiling inside them. She knew it wasn't anger at her, "What's the matter child?"

"Why would someone hurt me? What did I do to them?"he ground out through his clenched teeth.

The older woman sighed and sat next to boy on the bed. She pulled him against her into a hug and said, "We don't always have explanations for why people are cruel. I am happy to see some emotion coming from you, but holding onto that anger will just make you just as cruel as the people who hurt you. I know it will be difficult right now, but you will need to forgive them to move on. Especially difficult for you since you don't even remember what happened."

"I just don't understand, Nurse Rachel," Daniel sighed and loosened his body from its tense grip.

"We do not want to understand cruel people, child. Cruelty understood would mean that you justify it. We cannot justify abuse to anyone. Do you understand that?" He nodded against her.

"Do you think anyone was kind to me?" he asked. His eyes shut as he started to feel sorrow overcome him and the anger leave.

"Even if you do not think anyone has, you need to live life now. Remember kindness now," with this she gave him a big squeeze, "Remembering kindness now will let you escape what hate, anger and cruelty can turn you into." She let go of him and stood up. Reaching into her pocket she turned to him again and knelt in front of him. "This was on you when they found you." She held out her hand and put something cold into his palm.

She smiled and said, "Trust in it and trust in what it represents to guide you from now on."

He looked up her with watery eyes now. "I don't want to leave here."

She gave him one last hug and left the room. He stared down at the cross sitting on his right palm. He felt the tears disappear and strength return inside his heart. He can do this. He can survive. It was now time to face many unknowns, but he could do it.

~*~Ma~*~

The house was painted a light blue color on the outside with a nice brown as the trim around the blue painted door and windows. The yard was beautiful with flowers everywhere and what looked like a vegetable garden in the back. There were pathways with stones instead of a concrete walkway everywhere. Daniel felt awkward going on the stone path to the front door behind his social worker. He didn't have any bags and no other belongings than the oversized clothes he wore and the cross he kept fingering in his jeans pocket. They stood in front of the sky blue door and waited for the lady who would be caring for him. His heart was leaping in his chest and he felt a strong urge to turn and run away. He fought against it and wondered why he had it.

The woman was older but very much active looking. She wore a nice blouse and a long skirt with flowers on it. Her white hair was long, almost as long as his and it was tied up loosely into a high pony tail. She smiled at him and invited them into her front room and to the couch that leaned against the wall on the far side. He sat carefully down and straight backed. He knew he looked a mess, but he tried to make sure not to act like one.

The woman sighed and said, "My name is Christine Snow, you can call me Ms. Snow or Mama Snow, please. I will be caring for you while you are under foster care, at least for the moment. I am used to older kids, but I don't think that should be a problem. I have a few ground rules to go over with you for your stay here. There will be no tolerance for lying, cheating, stealing or contraband use. Please no swearing either. I request respect and I will give respect as well. We are both people and thus should treat each other as such. You will be responsible for your area, which will need to stay neat and clean at all times, and I expect you to pick up after yourself. Do not leave something lying around unless you want it to end up in the bin for the refuse men, because that is exactly where I will put it. You will also be expected to do one light chore a week, which will rotate every week so that you do not get bored with it.

"I am here to raise you to be productive to society. My rules are for a reason. Any questions?"

He thought about them all and then said, "I don't think I ever lie. I don't see a reason to. These are all very reasonable rules. I like them."

The woman opened up finally with a smile. "I will show you to your room now. I already have a few clothes in there for you that I was able to find, but we will go shopping as soon as we can to get you your own style clothes. I understand a little about you already, but whenever you feel you need to, I will be here to listen to you as well." They started walking down the hallway toward the bedrooms.

~*~Ma~*~

He lay on the bottom bunk of the wooden bunk beds that were in his room. He didn't have a roommate, but he was explained to that there was always the possibility that she could have another child come live with them. He was nervous today. He rubbed his fingers on the cross that was hung around his neck. It had become a habit to do when he felt agitated, he realized.

He had been here playing son for the woman for a week. They got along, but his lack of memories made some things very difficult. He had to be taught, as a young child would be, how to do some basic cleaning. She had said it was no problem, but he felt the frustrations deep down.

Now, today, a teacher was coming to give him a test to determine where he placed in school. They wanted to make sure to have his transition seamless into the public education system they lived near. Inside he was trembling. He already was learning so much about what he didn't know that he feared maybe the schooling was also really gone too. He knew a bit of what the doctor had questioned him, but what if he didn't know enough to enter the grade level his age was? His foot was swinging now off the side of the bed as his agitation increased.

"Maybe you have ADHD?" a voice asked from the door of his bedroom. He looked over and completely stopped moving. His foster mother stood in the middle of the door. "Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. Usually you hear me coming from a mile away." He nodded, his heart still pounding, as he willed his body to loosen from its frightened response. They had already found out that frightening him wasn't a good idea and that it took a lot to startle him in the first place. He seemed to know where she was at all times in the house. That one other time that she had snuck up on him, though, he'd run straight for a window and was out in the front yard before he could realize what he was doing. He still felt horrible for breaking the screen the way he did. He couldn't explain any of it to her, but she didn't push. "The teacher is here," she told him. He again nodded, shoved his cross down the front of his shirt, and got up from the bed.

He walked out and into the living room where a male adult was sitting on the couch in front of papers and a tablet laid on the coffee table. Daniel walked into the room and stood waiting to be acknowledged. The man looked up and smiled, "Hello. My name is Mr. Telisch."

"I'm Daniel Francis," Daniel answered back. It was nice to be able to give a name to someone. The teacher motioned to the couch next to him and Daniel walked to the right side of the man and sat down on the floral imprint.

"I am going to start your testing today and we will test everyday until I'm done, okay? This can finish today or it can finish by Friday, but we need to see how high you can go. Do not be afraid to push the button that you do not know the answer." Daniel nodded and the testing began.

~*~Ma~*~

"The thing is Ms. Snow and Mrs. Grahm," Mr. Telisch sat on the floral imprinted couch once again a week after he first started the testing for Daniel to see where he could be placed in school. "Daniel can probably pass college right now. He is exceptional in all areas and I am not sure what more the school district could teach him. The only problems I see are his levels of inattentiveness can probably get him into trouble. He gets bored easily and has trouble sitting still. I suggest we send him to school, anyway, so that he can make friends and learn how to be who he is truly inside. Since he has no memories he cannot tell us how he has so much knowledge or the fact that really he could probably be teaching the classes he is about to attend, but I think school can only be better for him socially."

"I wish he could tell us how he got this education… he seems to weird even without memories. His body seems to remember how to do certain things, like he fixed my car the other day when it wouldn't start, but he cannot remember how to turn on a washing machine," Christine shook her head, "And he is a danger in the kitchen. I will never have him try and cook again. He is brilliant, but cannot follow a recipe?"

Mr. Telisch laughed a bit, "That could be his inattentiveness."

Alecia sighed, "We'll put him in with the seventh graders and we will not tell him what his scores are. We do not want him to know he is ahead right now. I think it would do him good, as well, to be in with kids and learn once again to socialize with children his age."

They all nodded and started the paperwork to enter him into the school district. Behind them the news continued to rattle away on the television, "Once again we are asking anyone to come forth who might know of a young boy, about 12, who was found on the side of Highway 90 a month ago."

~*~ Tsuzuku ~*~

A/N: My mother came to visit for the month and my oldest child is being tested for Autism. I am sorry this is delayed. I am certainly going to be updating this a lot more frequently than a month or two apart.


	3. Chapter 3

Blank Slate

France Gamble

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Three

His purple eyes stared right back at him as he once again tugged on his sleeves. They just didn't seem long enough to hide the scars on his arms from whatever happened to him in the past. The shirt was black with an emblazed logo of some band that his foster mother assured him every child his age was listening to in their area. His jeans hung nicely to the floor and were folded slightly at the bottom. A hole was already in the left knee area that had been created just the other week before when he slid onto the side walk trying to escape, once again, from some nightmare he didn't remember when he woke up. His foster mother had put motion alarms onto his window and bedroom door that were turned on at night so that she could get him from his terrors. He sighed as he fingered the cross around his neck. Nodding to himself in the mirror he shoved his cross into his shirt and turned to leave the bedroom.

In the kitchen he sat down at the breakfast nook while Christine put a bowl of cereal in front of him and the jug of milk. "You're going to be very warm today if you wear that shirt," she informed him kindly. He nodded, sighed, and looked at her worriedly. He pulled up the sleeves of his shirt to point out the scars that she already knew existed. "Daniel, I have told you many times, no one is going to notice those unless you point them out."

"I don't want to go," he mumbled while looking down at his cereal loops.

"School will be fun. You will make friends. You will be fine." She sighed and walked around to him. Carefully she slipped her arms around him and gave him a hug. "You can do this Daniel. You are stronger than you think."

He turned and looked at her. He shut his eyes, breathed in deep, and nodded. Determination filled his eyes as he opened them up and looked at the woman. She smiled brightly and walked towards the front door. With the keys to her car in hand she turned to him, "Alright, let's go." He smiled back and jumped up from the stool to follow her out the door, grabbing his backpack from the floor of the front closet.

~*~Ma~*~

He sat in his first class willing his fear down and bringing up his courage. He knew he had to have courage, because how else could he have survived through all of the scars on his body. The woman at the front of the class was talking about what things they would be reading the first quarter of the school year.

His fear subsided as the she turned around to write on a white board the list of titles that they were to start reading on their own for study. His leg started to swing slightly under the desk and he tapped out on top of the wood with an index finger. His brain was racing now. As each title came out, his brain supplied him with information. He knew the characters, the plots, and could even quote the books that were written on the board. Confusion filled in where fear had been and he felt a bit of panic coming through.

'How in the…' his brain was unable to finish the thought as a folded piece of paper fell onto his desk from his right. In a split second he willed his body to not run from the shock of it. It had taken by complete surprise and every fiber in him wanted to run through the class room door. He stared at the paper and willed his body to move slowly. His heart pounded in his chest. The paper was like a bomb to him, with how he looked at it. The top of the folded paper read, "Open me". He finally was able to reach out after what seemed like an eternity to him, but really was just half a minute. He opened the note and read its contents inside.

You okay?

He looked over at the brown headed boy next to him and nodded slightly. The boy looked away for a second to check that the teacher was still facing the board, and then he turned back toward Daniel and waved for the note to be passed back to him. Daniel handed him the paper. The other student turned and quickly started to write on the paper again. Then he checked on the teacher while handing the note back to Daniel.

You looked like the end of the world was coming and you were confused by it all. My name is Sam.

Daniel picked up his pencil and wrote underneath the cursive of the other boy, My name is Daniel. I am fine now. I already read these books.

The note started its careful path back and forth from both of the boys.

~*~Ma~*~

The weeks passed by easily for the braided boy. His classmates never questioned his clothing choice and he had found a best friend in Sam. School was also very easy for him, and he never questioned it. He really didn't find the need to as his days blended peacefully into each other.

The two boys were walking down the street toward their neighborhood. Their backpacks were lazily hanging off of shoulders as Sam was energetically talking, "Yeah, so my mom said that you can come over and watch the movie tonight!"

Daniel nodded and said, "It's based off the book, right?"

Sam looked at him like he was turning purple, "You read that already?"

Daniel stopped walking, "I read it while everyone was doing their placement tests. I had nothing better to do." Sam stopped walking, too, and then laughed. Daniel tilted his head slightly confused. "What's so funny?"

"You, man, are very sensitive about the fact that you like to read," Sam gasped out.

Daniel rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Okay, fine, I just don't want to be called a geek by anyone." Sam shook his head and continued to giggle as they continued on their way to Daniel's house. They didn't take long to reach the front door. The long haired boy opened the door and called out to the quiet, "Mama Snow?" He didn't receive an answer. Christine was always home when he showed up. She would greet him every day at the door and ask how his day had been at school. He leaned back and looked at the driveway. Her small car was sitting there. She had to be home.

He took off his shoes and motioned for Sam to stay in the door. He slowly and silently walked into the house. He went into the living room and saw nothing amiss. He couldn't figure out where his foster mother could possibly be. "Mama Snow?" he whispered this time. He crept far into the house, and back into his room, where he saw the kind lady on the floor. "Mama!" he screamed as he rushed forward to her side. She lay fallen onto her stomach toward the window as if she had just entered the room suddenly and lost her balance.

"Sam! Get me the 'phone!" Daniel screamed to his friend still at the front of the house. He heard his friend quickly slip off his shoes and come running through. He heard the other's footsteps slid on the flooring in the kitchen and then come pounding through to his bedroom. The other child gasped at what he saw when he came with the telephone into room that Daniel was kneeling in. The long haired boy quickly grabbed the black wireless phone from his friend's frozen hands. He dialed quickly. "C'mon!" he screamed into the receiver as it continued to ring. "C'mon!"

Finally the ringing tone ended and a female voice answered, "Nine-One-One what is your emergency?"

"I need an ambulance for my mom. She is unconscious at five-sixty-four Emerald avenue," he choked out a soft sob, reached forward and touched the side of her neck, "Her pulse is weak." He then continued on checking his mother by touching her upper lip, "Her breathing is shallow and erratic. Please, please, hurry!"

Sam came down beside him and put an arm around his friend's shoulders as Daniel continued to answer the lady's questions on the phone, "I don't know what happened. I came home from school and found her. Please, tell the ambulance the front door is open. We are in the back room. She is in my room. Please, hurry." He felt himself about to lose himself in worry. The ambulance siren seemed to take forever to finally hear over his pounding heart. He could feel the sobs start when the men swept into the room, Sam pulling him away from his foster mother's side to keep him from being in the way. He followed the gurney from the room after they had secured her to it.

"I am coming to. I'm her son!" he yelled as he chased after them. He turned to Sam, "I'm sorry." Sam smiled and waved his hand to cast aside the apology.

"I'll just go home and tell my mom what happened. We'll see you at the hospital," Sam said seriously. He ran out behind them as they all left the house. Daniel quickly shoved his feet into his shoes, Sam grabbed them without even bothering, and quickly shoved his key into the door.

The braided boy was pulled into the back of the ambulance by a helping hand and grabbed onto his rope of hair before the doors were slammed shut on it. He sat in silence and watched the paramedics try to stabilize the woman who cared so much in such short time. 'Don't let her die, please! I need her,' he thought as the sirens started to wail again and the medic bus raced towards salvation and his name-sake.

~*~ Tsuzuku ~*~

AN:

I know this is late. I shouldn't make excuses, but here is a few. I am a single mom to four children all 5 and under. Three of my children are special needs. We are currently going through lots of therapies and summer things since their school time therapies ended the beginning of May. My oldest is also going through testing for Autism and broke his arm the end of April. Their dad (they all have the same dad) has been refusing visitation time (which is when I have time to write). I also work full time on 10 hour shifts Monday through Saturday. I also get my internet through a friend who has to shut it off by 9:30pm every night to keep her children from escaping their rooms to play Xbox360 (but she is awesome to let me steal her internet like this). Let's add in that my vehicle left me on the side of the road today and overheated, so I am stressing on that too. I am getting this chapter, which has been mostly written since the end of April (was just missing the last few paragraphs), out tonight because I am going to be spending my American holiday (Fourth of July) writing up the next chapter as an apology to my faithful people. I am DEEPLY sorry that this has taken so long to write. When I realized that we have celebrated two holidays (religious ones) in my house since my last update, I about fainted. I did not abandon this, and the outline is complete for the entire story. There will be an ending on this one and I will not leave it like I did my InuYasha story on my other fanfictionnetaccount (Story name is Prejudice).

So, there you go. Look for the next chapter to be up later in the week. I am going to be ignoring the piles of laundry that need folding just to get it out this week.


	4. Chapter 4

Blank Slate

France Gamble

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Four

He was cold. His whole body seemed to be completely numb. His brain was shut down and he stared at the straight pattern in the linoleum flooring in front of the hard plastic chair he sat in. He couldn't think, because every time he tried to tear his eyes away from the one spot, his brain came up the images of his foster mother lying on his bedroom floor. Why had she been in his room? What happened to her? The image once again came into his brain.

Suddenly a hand touched his shoulder. He jumped up and grabbed roughly onto the arm of the person who had scared him. His heart was racing as he forced his body to stop in its fight or flight response. This time he wasn't going to flee, but rather it seemed his body was going to continue on and hurt this other person. Wide brown eyes stared at his at the other person realized he made a mistake in touching Daniel. The braided boy quickly let go of his only friend and turned and punched the wall behind the chair he had just been sitting in. He felt his knuckles crack against the wall as a spider web crack formed into the hard covering over the cinder blocks behind the paint. Sam rubbed his wrist where the bruise was forming from Daniel's grip. Sam's mother, a blond like her son, came forward and pulled both of the boys to her chest. "It'll be okay," she whispered into their hair as the brunette finally broke down and started to sob.

Daniel cried for a good ten minutes and then gently pushed away from the woman. Sam stayed in his mom's arms as they watched Daniel compose himself. His long braid swung back and forth as he shook his head from thoughts that even he couldn't comprehend.

A woman in a long white coat came into the room and saw them. She approached the small group, "Mr. Francis?" Daniel nodded and stepped forward toward the short cropped hair woman. "I have contacted your social worker, honey. You will not be able to return to Mrs. Snow."

Daniel felt his world coming down around him again, "What happened to her?" He looked hopefully at the doctor, "Please, tell me she is going to be alright?"

The doctor looked undecided for a minute. "I can tell you that she will be okay. I cannot tell you her diagnose, because you are not her family." He nodded and sat down in the seat again. Sam's mother sat down next to him and again pulled him close to her flower blouse upper body. He didn't cry this time, though. He just let the woman hold him.

"Can't we take him, mom?" Sam asked his mother as they sat there waiting for Alecia. His mother shrugged her shoulders. Sam collapsed down next to Daniel and leaned into his friend. "I hope we can."

They sat that way for over a half an hour when Alecia walked into the waiting room. She ran her hand down her black skirt that went to her knees, as her heels clicked against the flooring. Her hair was curled and put high into a pony tail on her head. Her button down plain blue shirt had a few wrinkles caused by her seat belt on the ride to the hospital. Daniel raised his purple eyes to her as she approached them.

"Daniel, I'm sorry to hear about Ms. Snow. I have gotten what I could from her house for you with her permission and so it's all set into the car and ready," she spoke softly to him as she brought her hand down to him to bring him to standing. He stared at it as if he didn't know what it was.

Sam's mom spoke up then, "Can't we take him home with us?" Alecia looked at the other woman. Blue eyes looked deep into blue as Alecia's went sad and she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but unless you have qualifications through the state, he cannot."

Daniel looked down at the flooring again, sighed, and stood up. His eyes hardened, once again, with determination. "I'm ready." He didn't grab onto the outstretched hand as he walked toward the doors. Sam ran after him and together they went through the doors as the adults followed behind him.

They reached the car parking area and both boys turned toward each other. "Call me, K? You still have to see that movie," Sam choked a bit on the last word.

Daniel stepped closer and put hands on both of Sam's shoulders, "Hey man, don't worry, k? I have your number memorized. I'd have to have amnesia to not call, K?" They both laughed and hugged each other. "I'm sure I'll be watching that movie with you next weekend if my new foster parents aren't crappy, k?" They let go of each other. They gave each other weary smiles as they followed their respective female adults to the vehicles onto their new adventures. Both of them knew that no matter what they would always are good friends.

~*~ Tsuzuku ~*~

A/N: Sorry this is short everyone, but I wanted to upload it before my computer crashed again. My computer decided to crash and burn. I recovered most of it on my own, including my stories and novels (original stories and things I am setting for publishing), but my playlists of music is all gone and so I'm reloading every CD and mini-hard drive I have.

So, this chapter and the next chapter were supposed to be one chapter. They will both be short due to this.


End file.
